Who is Captain Bonnafous from Wind, Sand and Stars and what is their importance?

Capain Bonnafous is the first Frenchman the thieving Moorish tribes of the Sahara came to respect as able to outsmart them. Former masters of their desert, they had been outwitted and out-maneuvered by Bonnafous and his men several times, and came to see him as the only worthy adversary. Antoine observes that this inspired in them a kind of affection for the Frenchman in them, so that if he were to return to his own homeland and leave them without the challenge he presented, they would inwardly mourn their loss.